In national news with profound statewide reverberations, a California appeals court reversed the controversial decision handed down two years ago in Vergara v. the State of California and the California Teachers Association.

“At issue were five state laws that established layoff procedures based on seniority, laid out dismissal procedures and awarded teachers permanent status, known as tenure, after two years on the job,” as EdSource recalled.

Although teachers unions hailed the reversal, an appeal was all but certain, keeping California’s beleaguered education system in uncertain waters for possibly years to come.

The court rejected Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu’s holding that California’s teacher job protections “deprive poor and minority students of a quality education or violate their civil rights,” as the New York Times reported, “reversing a landmark lower court decision that had overturned the state’s teacher tenure rules.”

“In reversing the trial court’s decision, a panel of three appeals judges wrote that if ineffective teachers are in place, the statutes themselves were not to blame because it was school and district administrators who ‘determine where teachers within a district are assigned to teach.’ The laws themselves, the judges wrote, do not instruct districts in where to place teachers.”

Justice Roger Boren, writing for the court, concluded that the Vergara plaintiffs “ultimately failed to show that the statutes themselves make any certain group of students more likely to be taught by ineffective teachers than any other group of students,” as Southern California Public Radio observed. “Administrators — not the statutes — ultimately determine where teachers within a district are assigned to teach,” he went on. “It is clear that the challenged statutes here, by only their text, do not inevitably cause poor and minority students to receive an unequal, deficient education.”

Uncertain futures

The ruling immediately threw into question the fate of pending litigation around the country. “Parties on both sides viewed the Vergara decision as a bellwether for the nation,” the Los Angeles Times noted. “Similar litigation was filed soon after in New York; and on Thursday, just before the release of the appellate decision in California, another lawsuit was filed in Minnesota.”

“The case was being closely watched across the country by those who argue that allowing administrators to more easily fire bad teachers would improve schools and student performance. Right now, there are a series of job protections that can be invoked before school districts can remove a tenured teacher.”

Battle lines harden

Teachers unions and their supporters rushed to applaud the ruling, which spared them a politically dangerous humiliation; as the Sacramento Bee recalled, until Vergara, they had “easily batted back legislative challenges from groups seeking to overhaul the public education system by eliminating tenure and adding test scores to teacher evaluations.” As the Los Angeles Times noted, “union critics turned to the courts because teachers — ranking among the state’s most powerful interest groups — have been able to block substantial revisions to laws that protect them.”

“From the start, many Vergara supporters saw victory as a long shot but reasoned that the effort at least would keep teacher unions and their allies on the defensive — and call attention to parts of the system they wanted to change.”

But officials in the state GOP also spoke out fast, showing little concern that their political momentum had truly been blunted. Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes, R-Yucca Valley, expressed hope that the case rose quickly to the state Supreme Court. “Although I disagree with the court ruling, I know the fight to better our children’s education doesn’t end here,” he said in a statement. “Our children have a civil right to a quality education, and it is disappointing to see that the appeals court doesn’t agree.”

“Although this ruling is a disappointing win for the failing status quo in California, I am committed to continuing the fight to provide every child — regardless of background or zipcode — with a top-quality education that will set them up for success in the classroom, in the workplace, and in life,” said Education Committee vice-chair Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Riverbank, in a statement.

19 comments

“Tenure” for teachers is blatantly discriminatory as it excludes tenured job protection for other occupations.

Performance from TENURED teachers is irrelevant for their guaranteed jobs! Tenured teachers are NOT required to teach! In a non-competitive environment, tenure is a direct reflection on low student performance scores as ill qualified teachers are protected from being fired. Tenure protects those in their careers from the competition young workers would generate.

The unintended consequences of tenure are that students are often shuffled from one grade to the next on the basis of attendance, even if they do not know the material.

The battle is on: Tenured teachers’ job protection along with no accountability for their performance vs. the students’ need to learn from teachers with no accountability to actually teach.

In a “real” business environment, only the performers survive. MEDICAL: Can you expect quality service from individuals with protected jobs and complacency to stay abreast of the latest technologies and procedures? SPORTS: Can you imagine tenured athletes with guaranteed jobs having the motivation to be competitive against athletes fighting for their jobs? CONSTRUCTION: Can you expect quality work and adherence to any schedule with a complacent worker tenured with job protections?

If tenure is allowed to continue, an even playing field would provide tenure opportunities for heart surgeons, airline pilots, athletes, and construction workers, etc., so that they too have guaranteed jobs with no accountability for performance and protect them from the competition from other and possibly more qualified workers.

Ron, you are correct, but the RAGWUS is a labyrinth of bureaucrats with a cadre of sycophants, backslappers, and bootlickers that whine at every turn and exposure. The retired feeders like Skdog, my parrot Teddy, and Ahaul are on constant watch for anyone or thing the brings light to the corruption of our government. 🙂

This is nothing but the RAGWUS pushing its power of all the state bureaucracies for the advancement of the feeders. It will only help in hastening the collapse of the feeder tax base. Wallow while you still can my RAGWUS dolts, Pompeii is just below the horizon for you. 🙂

Ragwenettus , the founder of RAGWUS, a going quasi advalorum fraternal group back in the day, a few years after Romulus invented vitamin enriched packaged dog food…..Ragwid is an offshoot surly group of chubby plutocrats from Rio Linda….sorta harmless but useful here and thereafter…..just clearing up things, hopefully for those GED gems Poodle and Donkey.

We live in bizarre times. Did anyone catch that the U San Fran women basketball coach came out as as gay and her partner is a subordinate . Not a peep about this is inappropriate. Imagine if men ‘s basketball coach was popping his weasel in a female trainer for the team. He would be hung by his balls.
I can t wait when the Woman Olympic team is 90 percent transgender. It will have the same attraction as the bearded lady at the carnival. Imagine the woman100 meter Sprint gold medal winner has a bigger tool than the Jamaican man 100 meter Sprint gold medal winner. Isn t this great?